Starting From Zero
/ Starting from Zero Vol 4 Chapter 119
two fleets ahead of us moving closer. I don’t think we can make it. Bi-Lin is fast, really fast. But those pirate ships are no slower. They already closed up their dozens of kilometers of gap when I was giving the orders.
"Ziri? 20 kilos. They're within range. Do we attack?" Hawk asked.
"Not yet. Let’s wait a bit."
"But our range is the only advantage now, if we wait--"
Boom! An explosion caused a giant water pillar near our ship.
What the--the enemies have something that can shoot this far?
"Attack! Return fire!!" I quickly yelled.
"Make small zig-zag turns!" King ordered the helmsmen.
Bi-Lin started to advance in a strange S-shaped manner. And it worked, because several follow-up cannon shots all fell into the water near us.
When the attack paused I quickly ordered everyone. "Their first round ended! Quick, shoot back! Crystal cannons, aim at their flagship and knock it out first!"
"Which one??" Wuyuu poked his head out of the cannon shield chamber.
"The biggest one!"
"You got it!"
Our five crystal cannons released their attacks at the same time. The big kickback force caused us to stumble again. And owww...my ears are ringing.
Great value pays off. The crystal cannons are all equipped with assistance aiming scopes, and the five shots all hit. The purple colored bullets went into the enemy ship as if it is soft cake.
Our Dragon Punch cannons began their display as well. The cannons located along our ship fired in sequence, from tip to tail. We have 1,300 of them for Christ's sake!
I don’t know if we did enough damage or we simply scared them. The enemies didn’t fought back. Either way, this is a chance for us.
"Don’t stop, fire, fire away!!" Hawk roared.
More shots went away. Since our cannon formation stands really long along the ship, the cannons at the tip are already ready for the second shots when those at the tail are still waiting for the first. The pirates never did anything after their first wave of attack. Probably not expecting our firepower. Or maybe they're planning to capture us without destroying our ship?
When we're close enough with them I contacted Big Pot in my guild chat. "Bring out our men!"
"Finally. It’s shoooow time!"
Bubbles appeared on the water surface. Poom! Big Pot came out the water on his motorboat, with a fire archer sitting behind him. Then Passerby and the rest of our motorboats all showed up and rushed to the pirate ships with roaring engines.
The pirates made their attacks again, aiming at the motorboats. Of course those fire archers mean a lot of trouble if they get too close. However, the motorboats are only about a meter in length, with really slim design. Cannons can't aim at these speedy vehicles at all, so the only thing they can do is making mess fire and hoping for lucky hits.
Pity. Luck belongs to me. The enemy attack came out with zero score. Some of our riders were knocked off their boats by the water waves but they can just climb back and keep charging.
Our crystal cannons stopped as our motorboats reached the enemies. Everyone made a drift-halt in union. The fire archers took out their arrows from their waterproof quivers and released their flame at the ships. Groups of pirate ships caught fire. These attacks are more effective than our cannons, since the cannons can only open several holes but cannot destroy their ships unless we hit their weakpoint, their ammunition depot, or cause enough breaches on them. While the fire arrows can easily ignite the entire ship if they don’t put out the fire in time. The pirates obviously did not spend enough money on ship materials, they’re all using cheap, easy-to-burn wooden hull.
Big Pot led his team back towards us when their job is done, while the pirates saluted them with their random cannon shots. When close enough, the motorboats tilted downwards and all dived into the water, entering our bottom level through the magic shields.
Big Pot and Passerby ran to us, looking wet and excited.
"That was AWESOME! And cool!"
"Any loss?" Actually I’m not worrying about losses when looking at the broken enemy formation, but I asked anyway.
"Not much. 7 boats were hit, and 12 fire archers were missing. They fell into the water and never came back."
Which is negligible.
We already moved into the burning fleet. They’re on fire but it will take some time for them to sink completely. Nevertheless, they can’t fight back now. Their only choice is jumping into the water and hope they survive.
"Ziri, some ships are blocking our path." King suddenly called.
"Chief, open the ramming horn."
"Yes sir! Ramming horn out! All hands brace for impact!"
With a booming noise, Bi-Lin cut threw the now manless ship straight ahead while throwing the other ships nearby off their course. The other fleets behind us can only watch as we gain more speed and sail away. We're still within their range though, and they finally decided to make a full-assault on us with their cannons. I think they know they can’t capture our ship so they made up their mind to destroy us.
Countless shots rained down. Many hit, but our new magic shields from the Dark Sanctuary and Atlantis absorbed quite some damage. The cannons didn’t do much to our mythril platings after going through two layers of protection. Ahh...now I don’t regret spending all the money.
None of the rounds went through our hull. They only sank into the platings and remained there. Bi-Lin now looks funny with all the little "bumps" around it...But this is better than getting sunk. It's getting dark anyway. The moon will repair us up.
"Fare thee well my dear pirates!"
We sailed far from them using our speed advantage. It won’t be long before we completely go out of their shooting range. That said, we're already pretty safe here, cause their cannons can’t do much to us at such distance.
The pirates stopped their attack. However instead of leaving, their gathered up and tried to follow us.
When I looked at them using Star Gaze I noticed three small boats among them, going for their biggest ship in the center.
The people standing on the boats caught my attention. One of them is Asian, probably Chinese, because he's wearing traditional oriental attires common in our port cities. I’m not sure though, such clothes is not exclusive to China. He’s a bald man with a terrifying face. I mean, there's a lot of beard and muscles on him.
A Caucasian woman is standing on a boat beside him, who wears bright red hair and full-cover leather tights. It looks like those female riding suits seen in middle age European movies. She looks good too. A typical able woman, with high nose and spirited blue eyes.
Another terrifying-looking guy is with them. It is a bulky, Caucasian man with brown-ish mustache. Maybe a Russian?
As I inspected them, another individual came into my sight. His brown skin suggests that he’s from India. I get the feeling that this man is in charge here...Which is weird. An Indian is leading a team of pirates?
They discussed something among themselves. I'm curious about what they’re planning to do so I ordered my chief to slow down our ship.
Their discussion turned into quarrel. The woman left their meeting first and returned to her own ship, angered. The big Asian man is next to quit, also in a bad mood. As for the Russian guy...he started beating the Indian up.
"What are they doing?" King and the others all looked at the strange scene using their scopes.
"No idea. Is that a global pirate union or something? They got every race over there. Well maybe except Africans."
"Hey look, I think the Indian man is gonna die at any moment." Red Moon said.
As he said, the Russian is now holding him up by the neck. The muscled man is a LOT bigger so the Indian cannot reach the ground or his assailant no matter how hard he tries. The color on his face indicates that he's going to have a get-together with Lady Maria soon.
But looks like they are standing on an Indian ship. Most crew on the ship look brown, and they all rushed to help their leader.
Suddenly, a stream of blood surged towards the sky, which caused the crowd to scatter in panic. The Russian man now has a curved blade stuck inside his stomach. He stepped back a bit with round eyes, and collapsed.
At the same time, one of the fleet, probably Russian fleet, started shooting at the Indians.
The Indians quickly fought back. Now we’re looking at our former enemies fighting among themselves.
The woman's fleet also moved in front of the Indians and started attacking them, followed by the Asian man's fleet. They are communicating something with their flags, so I asked our flagman.
"What are they saying?"
"You...take care of...the...ahead...we will...these damnable black...something...until one of us dies."
"What the hell?" I scratched my head.
"Maybe their alliance broke apart and turned into a conflict." Hawk shrugged.
"Halt the ship!" I ordered the chief mate. "Let's stay and watch. We never had a chance to observe a naval fight before, maybe we can learn something from it."
"What the hell?" I scratched my head.
Hawk shook his head. "Maybe their alliance broke apart and turned into a conflict."
"Halt the ship!" I ordered the chief mate. "Let's stay and watch. We never had a chance to observe a naval fight before, maybe we can learn something from it."
Chapter end
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